Daily Archives: May 1, 2012

Ward Churchill is the disgraced former University of Colorado full professor, sans terminal degree, sans academic ethics, and it turns out, sans the Native American bona fides he claimed to possess. Churchill, in one of the better headlines I’ve recently read, was categorized as a Reprobate Without A Cause.

Ward Churchill was fired from Colorado University in Boulder in 2007 for “repeated intentional academic misconduct.” The firing resulted not from his noxious comments about victims of terrorism, or his virulent anti-American rantings, but from proven instances of plagiarism, duplicitous writings, and questions about his unsubstantiated claim of having a Native American heritage.

Elizabeth Warren is a darling of the left, former Obama Administration worker and Harvard professor, and U.S. Senate candidate. Warren has claimed to be part Cherokee (one thirty-second), earning double bonus points on the diversity scorecard: female and Native American. The downside for Warren is that even if it’s true—she bases the claim on “family stories”—the game is over.

I just can’t shake the ridiculous image of you, Liz — a blue-eyed blonde almost as pasty white as me — letting yourself be described as a minority professor, a Native American, for years.

You’ve played the Indian card. You’ve grabbed for minority cred without enduring the minority grief. It’s poached diversity.

In a political culture that long ago surrendered to the permanent campaign, Obama has managed to take things to a whole new level.

After some well-deserved Obama bashing with a dash of ‘Republicans do it too’ (even though not nearly at the whole new level previously mentioned) Milbank needs to ask a question and get off the stage:

… Obama’s acquiescence to an intolerable status quo raises a question: Shouldn’t presidential leadership be about setting an example?

The obvious answer is yes. The real-world challenge in squaring the circle is seen in much the President does ranging from private money to Super PACs to his own tax return. It can be summarized as Do as I say and not as I do, or alternatively, Pay as I say and not as I pay.

While it is all quite unseemly, I don’t think these issues will keep Mr. Milbank from again voting for President Obama.